Observations: A) The system starts to boot, gets to the desktop, and then freezes if I use the original SATA RAID disks OR the new, restored files on a PATA hard drive. B) A fresh install of WinXP seems to work on an old PATA hard drive.
Since B worked it makes me think it's a configuration problem & not a controller problem. If it was a controller problem I wouldn't think that you would have a problem with both SATA & PATA controllers at the same time. & for the same reason I would NOT think it's a hardware issue with the HDs either.
Questions: A) Any ideas of the cause of this problem? B) Recommendations -- Try a restore to the SATA RAID hard drives? Do a new install on the SATA RAID hard drives? Do a new install on a PATA hard drive?
I wonder what would happen if you did a fresh install on a SATA drive but in a NON Raid configuration ?
C) Finally, do I trust this motherboard in the long run if any of the above installation attempts are successful? Should I just bite the bullet and build a new AMD64 system to replace this aging, long in the tooth AMD Athlon XP 3200+ system? But seriously, is this system worth trusting if I can resurrect it after this type of problem?
There is nothing wrong with having more than one system. ;-) But I would trust the 3200+ system if reconfiguring the drives works figuring it was a software configuration, bug or trojan issue of some sort.
Hey if you went with an AMD64 then you could also try out XP Pro 64. ;-)
--------+----------
Wayne D. Johnson
Ashland, OH, USA 44805
<http://www.wavijo.com>
